Staircase

Barbara Walters had a slip Saturday night, but her employer says the 83-year-old newswoman will be OK. Walters fell on a staircase while visiting the British ambassador's home in Washington for an inauguration party. She cut her forehead during the tumble. "Out of an abundance of caution, she went to the hospital to have her cut tended to, have a full examination and remains there for observation," an ABC spokesman wrote in a statement. "Barbara is alert (and telling everyone what to do)

I was having a period of bad health - quite a long period. I had a hip replacement, and another, and a hand surgery. Then a broken leg. Then a spinal surgery. Then another spinal surgery. I was falling apart faster than the doctors could put me back together. When they told me I needed a third spinal surgery, I declined. I knew they were right. I'd seen the MRIs. I was in constant pain and unable to work, or drive or do anything that brought me pleasure. But I just couldn't face the surgery, the hospital stay, the long recovery, the physical therapy.

The wife of Andruw Jones has accused the former Atlanta Braves star outfielder of dragging her down a staircase, grabbing her neck and saying he wanted to kill her, according to police. The police report, which was obtained by the Associated Press, said that around 1:30 a.m. on Christmas Day a fight broke out between Jones and his wife, Nicole, after she asked him to help prepare their suburban Atlanta home for Christmas. According to the report, Jones said she tried to escape upstairs but her husband grabbed her ankle and dragged her down the stairs.

I truly was intrigued when I read "Living Inside a Mystery" (April 10). As a building contractor I have always stood near our demolition stages in older homes on the small chance I may come across hidden mysteries. The most common item we find is old newspapers, usually used to repair wall plaster. It is fun to find old advertisements and the associated costs. The most intriguing item we found was in a home in Pasadena, which no one had lived in for years. The original owner's daughter, who owns the home, never wanted to sell her childhood home [even though]

Jay McGraw, an executive producer of several of his father's "Dr. Phil" specials, and his wife, former model Erica Dahm, have listed their Beverly Hills Post Office-area home at $6.25 million. The contemporary Mediterranean, completed in 2006, is a 6,980-square-foot house with a two-story entry, sweeping staircase, five bedrooms and six bathrooms. The nearly half-acre property includes a swimming pool with spa and a cabana-covered outdoor living and dining room. McGraw, 31, is the creator and executive producer of the Daytime Emmy-winning series "The Doctors" (2008-11)

The Beverly Hills estate of TV and film producer David Wolper has sold for $6.45 million. The 6,728-square-foot residence has a two-story-tall foyer with staircase, five en suite bedrooms, an elevator and a finished attic. The master suite includes a sitting area with fireplace, French doors that open to a terrace and dual closets. The backyard contains a swimming pool, spa, patios and an outdoor dining pavilion. Wolper, who died last year at 82, won an Academy Award as executive producer of the film "The Hellstrom Chronicle" (1971)

Soap star Cameron Mathison and his wife, Vanessa, have bought a house near the foot of the San Gabriel Mountains for $1.672 million. The Spanish Colonial Revival home, built in 1928, features a curving, decorative-tiled staircase, a step-down living room with trussed wood-beam ceiling and vintage tile, ironwork, wood and arches. The formal dining room is large enough to fit a 12-person table. There are four bedrooms, five bathrooms and nearly 3,700 square feet of living space.

Writer-producer-director Pen Densham has sold his house in the Windsor Square area for $2.75 million. The English Manor-style home, built in 1906, was moved to its current location from Wilshire Boulevard and Vermont Avenue by the Bullock family — think department store — earning it the name Bullock House. An oversized entry with beamed ceilings leads to the living room, library, formal dining room and carved-wood staircase. There are eight bedrooms, 71/2 bathrooms and a basement.

A historic chateau in Bearn, a French province in the Pyrenees mountains, is on the market for 645,000 euros or roughly $845,000 at late April conversion rates. The location served as a watch tower in the 9 th century and later belonged to the family of Catherine d'Espaloungue de Rague, mother of musketeer Henri d'Aramitz, who lived in the 1600s. He was the inspiration for Alexander Dumas' character Aramis in “The Three Musketeers.” With about 5,275 square feet of livable space, the property includes a main house, a barn and a caretaker's house on 2.3 acres with views of the mountains.

Barbara Walters had a slip Saturday night, but her employer says the 83-year-old newswoman will be OK. Walters fell on a staircase while visiting the British ambassador's home in Washington for an inauguration party. She cut her forehead during the tumble. "Out of an abundance of caution, she went to the hospital to have her cut tended to, have a full examination and remains there for observation," an ABC spokesman wrote in a statement. "Barbara is alert (and telling everyone what to do)

The wife of Andruw Jones has accused the former Atlanta Braves star outfielder of dragging her down a staircase, grabbing her neck and saying he wanted to kill her, according to police. The police report, which was obtained by the Associated Press, said that around 1:30 a.m. on Christmas Day a fight broke out between Jones and his wife, Nicole, after she asked him to help prepare their suburban Atlanta home for Christmas. According to the report, Jones said she tried to escape upstairs but her husband grabbed her ankle and dragged her down the stairs.

Ann Thompson still marvels at the sliver of ranchland she has lived on for the last eight years. "I fell in love with the house," she says of the Spanish Colonial-style home known as the DeWenter Mansion that sits in the quiet foothills of La Verne. "For my husband, it was the property. " Thompson is the most recent resident of an enduring landmark that recalls the heyday of the orange and lemon industry that brought millions of dollars to La Verne in the early 20th century. Many of the original citrus trees still surround the house at this onetime ranch.

Paula Abdul, the singer, dancer and former judge on "American Idol" and "The X Factor," has sold her house in Sherman Oaks for $1.884 million. She had listed it in late February at $1.899 million. The gated contemporary Mediterranean was built in 2000. It features a grand entry hall with a double staircase, French doors opening to patio and pool areas, five bedrooms and 41/2 bathrooms. The 4,679-square-foot house has mountain, canyon and city views. The onetime Laker Girl, 49, won Emmys for her choreography on "The Tracey Ullman Show" (1989)

One hundred years ago today, on March 18, 1912, two men dressed in black crossed the Seine in Paris to pay a call on their younger brother, an artist who lived alone in his studio on Rue Amiral-de-Joinville. Half a century later, the artist would vividly remember the dark clothes his brothers had worn that day, as if they had come to challenge him to a duel. The visit, it seems, was brief. Once his brothers had departed, the artist locked up the house and took a taxi by himself to the Quai d'Orsay, where the Salon des Independants was scheduled to begin later that week.